Pics to come, but all that really happened is this:
I collected some wild daphnia and brought home a little green/yellow hair algae by accident. Assuming it wouldn't survive in my tanks, I just gave my net a rinse and went on with life as usual. Within a week, my 30 gallon sprouted the greenest, lushest-looking tongue of green threads I've ever seen. And it kept growing! I just tested the nitrAtes in the tank and it came up 0. Now, granted, this is a lightly stocked tank. But I was feeding really heavily last week. There's never any ammonia or nitrItes and the pH is around 7.8 thanks to the pea gravel from Lowe's. Stock was an almost 3" LMB and two big female guppies. The LMB went to the LFS only because he was an accident from a friend in the first place and I choose my adonis over an accidental fish. (no, the adonis isn't in the 30. I'm planning waaay ahead.) Anyway, I only do the usual 50% water change every week more or less, so the nitrAtes were usually hovering around 20ppm. But not now. tested just a trace amount, and that could be the lighting. Hair algae is my new best friend. I'm using suction cups to incorporate it into all my tanks. Win.
I collected some wild daphnia and brought home a little green/yellow hair algae by accident. Assuming it wouldn't survive in my tanks, I just gave my net a rinse and went on with life as usual. Within a week, my 30 gallon sprouted the greenest, lushest-looking tongue of green threads I've ever seen. And it kept growing! I just tested the nitrAtes in the tank and it came up 0. Now, granted, this is a lightly stocked tank. But I was feeding really heavily last week. There's never any ammonia or nitrItes and the pH is around 7.8 thanks to the pea gravel from Lowe's. Stock was an almost 3" LMB and two big female guppies. The LMB went to the LFS only because he was an accident from a friend in the first place and I choose my adonis over an accidental fish. (no, the adonis isn't in the 30. I'm planning waaay ahead.) Anyway, I only do the usual 50% water change every week more or less, so the nitrAtes were usually hovering around 20ppm. But not now. tested just a trace amount, and that could be the lighting. Hair algae is my new best friend. I'm using suction cups to incorporate it into all my tanks. Win.
